The present invention relates to an improved device for use in fighting fires. More particularly, it relates to an improved device for conveying a quenching agent from the fire-fighting vehicle to an advantageous application point.
To effectively contain and extinguish fires, it is necessary to accurately direct the flow of a quenching agent such that it makes contact with the source of the fire. This task is often made difficult by the inaccessibility of the fire""s source caused by intervening obstacles or the heat radiating from the fire itself. Also, the fire is often not located near a quenching agent supply, and the quenching agent must be conveyed a substantial distance from its supply to the source of the fire. Prior art systems often employed either a telescoping boom or a water cannon to deliver quenching agent from a distant location. An exemplary device, employing a telescoping boom, is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 4,875,526, issued Oct. 24, 1989 to Latino, et al. entitled xe2x80x9cROUGH TERRAIN, LARGE WATER VOLUME, TRACK DRIVEN FIRE-FIGHTING APPARATUS AND METHOD.xe2x80x9d The prior art devices suffer from a lack of accuracy and dispensing range. The prior art devices also are incapable of conveying large flow rates of quenching agent.
There is a need in the art for a fire-fighting vehicle having the ability to pinpoint the position of the quenching agent dispensing point from a remote location. Also, there is a need in the art for a fire-fighting vehicle capable of conveying large volumetric flow rates of quenching agent.
The present invention is an improved fire-fighting vehicle having an articulable boom for accurate positioning of a nozzle near a fire source. The improved fire-fighting vehicle includes a vehicle chassis for rotatably supporting a plurality of boom sections. It further includes a conveying pipeline having an inside diameter of approximately six inches or greater and allowing a quenching agent throughput of at least 3,000 gallons per minute. The improved fire-fighting vehicle also includes a nozzle connected to a distal end of the conveying pipeline at a distal end of the outermost boom section.